Grey Power redux: You don’t drive like her does

(Updated below)

Complain about those insipid, vapid, and idiotic commercials by Grey Power and its mother company, Trafalgar, here:

Or better yet, write them a letter.

Trafalgar Insurance Company of Canada
700 University Avenue, Suite 1500
Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A1

Toll free: (866) 464-2424
Local: (416) 227-6740

The Trafalgar Insurance Company is yet again foisting upon us the screaming ninny characterized with such zeal by their Grey Power television commercials. I would have thought that by now, enough people with grammar skills, as well as women and men who take exception to being zealously characterized as horrible, screaming, angry and incompetent drivers, would have registered enough complaints that Grey Power and its grammatically challenged advertising agency would have been banished to the dustbin of bad television commercials.

Not so.

Thankfully, the television remote has been designed with not only an off or a mute button, but also with the ability to change channels to one that does not feature the Trafalgar Insurance Company and its ear-splitting, grammar-challenged Grey Power commercials.

Link to my previous entry on Grey Power and Trafalgar here.

(Update)

How appropriate - chicken little
Chicken Little - how appropriate

Can someone explain to me why women haven’t stormed that corporate bastion of female empowerment known as Grey Power to protest the vile, insipid and disgusting characterization of a female driver flopping her head around her vehicle like a screaming, adult-sized bobble head doll?

Some of the comments I’ve received on the ever-popular Grey Power television comedy of errors:

I hate the Grey Power ad… – Penny

…cheesiest, most irritating advertisements ever produced!!! – John

This TV ad has driven me to the point of smashing my remote control! – david1006

I absolutely HATE this commercial. – Baz

I am so sick of that ad… – Steve

I can’t stand it. – Mark

…annoys the hell out of me! – Kenneth

31 thoughts on “Grey Power redux: You don’t drive like her does”

  1. I recently did not renew my grey Power policy on the termination date as I finally realized I was paying more(stupid me). In any event the insurer had the nerve to send an additional bill for a date they arbitrarily chose about a month later. Nothing in the contract about this. Spread the word. Highly unethical. Of course I will not pay. Not submitted before.

  2. Their TV ads say….. you can save up to 60 % from what you pay now = B.S !
    I am over 50, I called them for for insurance quotes for My home & my parents` home.
    Both times, they gave me Higher rates than what we are paying now.
    Where are the BIG savings they tell you in their TV ads ?
    As for me, I`ve owned a home for over 20 yrs & Never had a claim. So I asked them how could any`1 save even 20 %. I was told that he Ads say…… “UP TO”
    Those 2 words protects their Asses, they may as well say… “You can save 99 %”
    All a BiG Scam !

  3. This company makes me sick. My father has been dead for two months now and they are still trying to collect $22 on an account that was cancelled 6 months ago. Every time they ask for something I provide it and then they ask for something else.

    Do yourself a favor, unless you want your family harrased after you pass away, don’t bother with this company.

  4. Gee! I can relate to the add…. I see idiots like that on the road! What’s wong with speaking the truth once in a while??? Actually spealing the truth should be ‘always’ not once in a while! People are so use to hearing lies that they think it’s the truth! Sorry, I see women putting make-up on while driving on the highway, talking on their cell phone which is permanently glued to their face changing lanes without shoulder checking first (Oh, sorry, you are unable to do that because you have 1 hand holding your cell phone to your face and the other on the steering wheel)! Duh! And yes, I am a women, but my cell phone is turned off when I’m driving, and I do not apply my make-up while driving either because I do that at home! Eating is another issue with drivers! Now, let’s go to men who thinks they know how to drive! Cell phones glued to their face also, cuts you off on the highway, then gives us the finger because they almost caused an accident!

    We all have faults while driving. So suck it up buttercup, admit to your faults, correct them, pay more attention when you drive, get off the d… cell phone, don’t eat while driving either and maybe, just maybe there would not be that many accidents!

    Read your driver’s book again! Learn what a 4 way stop is, what a yellow or red flashing light means…. a lot of you don’t know this.

    Grow up! Stop lying to yourself and make changes!

  5. I think it’s unfair that so many people are raggin on the actress. I thought the commercial was funny the first few times, but you ninnies seem to have missed the point – the character played by Karen Parker was a caricature – “a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.” That was the point – you don’t drive like the caricature, so why pay like you do?

    As Larynxa pointed out – sometimes you don’t have a choice in the jobs you do when you have to pay the rent. And although it’s easy to sit on your royal high horse and proclaim you’d never do such a thing – what commercials have you done lately?

    I gotta hand it to her – she’s as sick and tired as anyone else of these commercials – as would anyone having them shoved down their throat as frequently as they have been. According to the article in the Hamilton Spectator, she “…recently finished a stint on the Second City Mainstage where (she) co -wrote and performed three shows…won one Canadian Comedy Award, was Dora nominated and [is] currently up for four Canadian Comedy Awards this year…And all people know me as is ‘the bitch in the commercial.’ Gotta love show business.”

  6. They have a new one that I’ve seen once. I wonder who paid for the use of the vehicles? Surely they didn’t con the actors into providing their own cars again this time.

    I wonder what would have happened if the bobble-headed actor’s auto that they used would have gotten in an accident. You can bet that there’s got to be a clause in a policy for a private auto that disallows coverage when it’s used as a commercial vehicle.

  7. Yeehaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just heard on the news today that Grey Power is taking that #%*&$@ ad off the air! For ages I wondered if I was the only one annoyed by this abomination-in the-name-of-advertising. Rejoice one and all of my fellow afflictees, relief is nigh!!!

  8. I agree with these comments, well most of them. save $400? B**ls! They overcharged me for 6 years. When I did save more than that by using another company they never even acknowledged my cancellation letter. You in BC are lucky you can’t get them. They were also more on my condo ins. I was just too lazy to check out alternatives before.

  9. Personally, I’d consider myself to have succeeded in life were I able to actually turn any driver into a bobble-headed Grey Power driver as depicted in the commercial.

    I know, I know, my sights are set far too low.

  10. The commercial is brilliant. I’m sure it resonates powerfully with all the grey heads who drive 30 km an hour and stop for green lights and are sick and tired of seeing the drivers behind them freaking out and screaming.

  11. It must be a huge revenue generator, or those morons wouldn’t be running it ad nasueam, every minute of the day and night. Did you know that the female driver had to use her own car in the spot? That’s how desperate those idiots were to get something – indeed, anything – on-air.

  12. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!…It keeps on going and going and going! Is this ignorant commercial actually attracting clients?

  13. david10006 you said it. Smashing the tv. We have to all complain to the CRTC. There is no excuse to keep this crap on TV. I’ve even thought of cancelling my cable. CRTC.

  14. According to the Hamilton Spectator, the actress (?) who plays the crazy bitch is named Karen Parker, and if she got royalties for doing the ad, she’d be very rich. As it is, the ad was non-ACTRA, hence no royalties for her. They paid her off a couple of grand for doing the ad, and they can run it as many times as they want, for as many years as they want.

    Even she can’t stand to watch the commercial, which was shot using her mom’s car. In other words, Grey Power was so cheap that they shot a non-ACTRA commercial, and they didn’t even provide the car for it. (Yeah, that makes them look like a legitimate insurance company…)

    I hope Karen Parker has learned to be a little more selective in the jobs she accepts. I’m an actress too, and I know the difficulty of turning down a job because you find it offensive. But if you just go for the money, it’ll come back to haunt you.

    If I should happen to find myself again in the position of casting anything, I wouldn’t even give her a callback, because her performance in that egregious commercial is so offensive to me that it provokes a visceral reaction. If I saw her walk in the door, I’d immediately scream, “NEXT!” and punctuate it with several other choice words and a raised middle digit.

  15. I can’t agree more ! What a annoying commercial. Doesn’t speak well for Trafalgar or its’ business practices in my opinion.

    Is it just me or is their use of the English language wrong as well? Surely “You don’t drive like her” can’t be right. “You’re driving isn’t like hers.”, “You don’t drive like she drives.” would be more correct (or at least feel a whole bunch better to my ears).

    Jay

  16. It was indeed cathartic to read these comments about the sub-standard – and very annoying – Grey Power ad….not to mention useless for people on the Pacific side of Canada….
    I agree with Penny – I live on the West Coast and no less than 5 TV stations, all originating from back East (Vision, APTN, Weather Channel, CTV NewsNet and CBC NewsWorld) – With the exception of small “bites” of the Weather Channel to get my local forecast, I have stopped watching these stations. Time to get some Snail-mail out to each, as well as Trafalgar and its affiliates. I am just….plain….weary of this woman….

  17. I not only intensely dislike Grey Powers advertising, which is seemingly aired every ten minutes of the day, but I think it”s PHONEY.
    I”m a Senior with a safe driving record and I was insured with Grey Pqwer for 5 years and despite driving the same vehicle a 1995 Dodge
    Minivan and having no claims whatsoever, my premiums were increased every year by a substantial amount.
    When I questioned them about it, their response was, ” Oh well it”s because of the type of vehicle you are driving and the area you reside in. I eventually got wise and changed to CARP and that”s where I really saved $400. So all you Seniors out there, don”t be fooled by Grey Power”s brainwashing advertising.
    H.Weil

  18. Oh man, the ad featuring a woman driving a car screaming “Come on already, let’s go” and acting like an idiot has got to be one of the cheesiest, most irritating advertisements ever produced!!! Like some others, I have also writen to the company to see if they could enter the 21st century and create an ad that will be less of an embarrassment to the discipline of advertising/product marketing – unfortunately, I’m not feeling that hopeful as they appear to be running this ad more than ever. ARGH!!!!!!

  19. My biggest complaint with Grey Power is that they skim off the best clients out of the market to have a positive impact on their bottom line. Ever had a speeding ticket, Grey Power doesn’t want you. They remind me of the American health insurance companies who won’t insure you if you’ve been sick. It’s the corporate greed of companies like this that annoy me the most. All about the bottom line and be damned the customer. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trafalgar learned this technique from an American company or they have American shareholders.

  20. i agree 100%! This TV ad has driven me to the point of smashing my remote control! I cannot take it anymore!! Honestly, it has gone beyond annoying to the point where i have tried contacting both CBC and Grey Power to try to reason with them about how many times this thing airs in an average day and have not heard from either of them. My hatred has reached a point that i think if that vile hag was ever parked behind me in real life, i would put my truck in reverse and push her into incoming traffic..

  21. I absolutely HATE this commercial. For three years now, I’ve had to put up with it. Whenever it airs, and it practically airs every second commercial break on CTV news or on the Weather Network, I try to change the channel as quickly as possible to avoid destroying my TV set. About a year ago I got so sick of seeing it on CTV Newsnet, I switched the channel to CBC Newsworld and there was that bloody commercial again. I started laughing because it was too unreal. It was that kind of laugh that is a little too close to insanity that would have people worried. Luckily I didn’t go off the deep end. I used to record a three and a half hour block of shows from the old Lonestar Network and that ridiculous commercial was aired 17 times. Unbelievable! I hate It like no other thing on Earth!!!!

  22. Hi all: I’m working on a story about that loathsome woman and her annoying ad. Just wondering if any of you are from the Hamilton area and would be interested in commenting in print. You’re just what I’m looking for!
    Thanks.
    Mary K. Nolan
    The Hamilton Spectator
    44 Frid St.
    Hamilton, Ont.
    905-526-4689
    mnolan@thespec.com

  23. No wonder that stupid woman is freaking out she just got her new policy statement bill.Mine just went up over $200 when I asked
    why and after waiting 20min a woman in very bad broken English said they had a lot of claims, NOT FROM ME.
    Maybe if they stop running stupid ads every 10 min they may save us some money. I have gone elsewhere and saved over $200.
    It took them 3 tries to spell Michael right.

  24. Thanks for this! I have sent several complaints to Grey Power over this advertizement. Judging by the year of the car, I would say it has been on the air for nearly 10 years now. Time for you guys to invest in some new commericals for a change! I am so sick of that ad, I basically mute all advertizements when I watch CBC.

  25. The ad is like a repedative “tune” in your head that WONT GO AWAY!!! …Please…GO AWAY!!! Seriously…These ads obviously cost a FORTUNE,they are similar to many “Cash Grab” ads by several very devious telemarketers!!! Is there a site out there for seniors who HAVE taken the bait and switched to “Grey Power” and have comments about various claims after an accident and how “Fairly” they have been treated compaired to the company they left in desperation to get a reduced rate or rates. COME BACK!!!

  26. I hate the Grey Power ad not least because the product is not even available here in BC. We change the channel whenever possible.

  27. I can’t stand it. These commercials are on what seems like hundreds of times a day. I leave BNN on to track stocks during the day and can’t always hit mute. I’m not old or grey but if i ever am there is know way in hell i’d ever do bussiness with them, even if I had to pay more.

  28. I share your view. I have made two complaints to Grey Power and one to Newsworld but that frightful ad continues to be broadcast. I unfailingly change the channel. I followed your links to the insurance ombudsman but he said that complaints about advertising are not in his bailiwick. He is sending me the contact for the Grey Power ombudsman.

  29. I am ashamed to admit this – but this Grey Power ad annoys the hell out of me! I did a search to see of anyone else noticed the fractured grammar. Thank you. You have given me hope!

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